The Adult Coloring Book Fad: Have You Tried It?

I am loving this new form of self-expression!

Back at the beginning of 2015, I bought this coloring book:

I bought it mainly because of my love for creating mandalas, and I thought that this book would give me some ideas for my own mandalas. On February 18, 2015, I completed coloring just one mandala from this book:

I enjoyed doing it, but I basically forgot about the book as I moved on to other creative ventures.

Then, at my annual girls' weekend, where eight of us girls (who have know each other since grade school/high school) reunite, we spent a rainy afternoon coloring images from an adult coloring book. Cheryl had brought the book, as well as some coloring pencils and markers, to our get-together and we spent a couple of hours talking, laughing, and coloring together. 

During the same weekend, one of our group, Debbie (who was unable to join us for personal reasons), bought herself a coloring book and coloring instruments, and was also enjoying the relaxing benefits of sitting down and coloring. What an awesome coincidence!

After I got back home, I was motivated to do some more coloring, and I completed these mandalas:

October 22, 2015 (Colored pencils)

November 2, 2015 (Markers)

November 18, 2015 (Colored pencils, working on blending)

I also ordered 3 coloring books by the artist, Johanna Basford:

So far, I have colored 5 images from the Secret Garden book:

November 18, 2015 (a 2-page spread)

December 2, 2015

January 2, 2016

January 5, 2016

January 13, 2016

Usually I pick out the colors that I want to use as I go along, but for the last two pictures (the owl and the leaves), I put my new set of 60 Pitt Pen markers into a Zip-Loc bag, and randomly pulled out the next marker to be used. First, I colored the owl page, and then the leaves page was done with the markers that hadn't been used on the owl page. This was a fun experiment for me, resulting in me using colors, such as grey and black, that I wouldn't have used otherwise. 

For Christmas, my friends David and Valerie gave me a Star Wars coloring book:

and, during the holidays, I finished the first 2-page spread of Yoda heads:

So fun!

These have been incredibly fun and relaxing to work on, and I look forward to doing more!